Mitsotakis Wants Varoufakis Dumped

ATHENS – New Democracy’s Parliamentary spokesman Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has undermined the country’s negotiations with international lenders and should be fired.

That came after the Finance Ministry was forced to deny a report in Corierre della Serra newspaper that Varoufakis had claimed the government would call a referendum on euro membership if its Eurozone partners reject its reform proposals.

“Every time he opens his mouth, he creates a problem for the country’s negotiating position,” said Mitsotakis. “He has managed something unique: To unite the whole of Europe behind Wolfgang Schaeuble,” the German Finance Minister who is a hardliner on austerity measures in Greece. Germany is the biggest contributor to rescue packages for Greece but demanded big pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and worker firings.

Mitsotakis said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the Radical Left SYRIZA leader, should replace Varoufakis as soon as possible. Tsipras already has reined in Varoufakis, who has taken a combative stance with the Eurozone, from giving so many interviews and shooting from the hip.

Mitsotais was Administrative Reform Minister while serving in the previous coalition led by New Democracy Conservative leader Antonis Samaras and has been talked of as the party’s next chief.